Law Society supports new routes to law in its LETR response

The Law Society has responded to the concerns raised in the legal education and training review (LETR), reinforcing its commitment to the traditional route to qualification while simultaneously acknowledging that the LETR should lead to the opening of alternative ways into the profession.

The LETR has called for serious reform to legal education and training, claiming that the current system does not serve the public. The review insists on the necessity of a move towards 'activity-based training' (ie, training focused on producing specialists in services such as will-writing) rather than the 'typical' lawyers produced by traditional qualification routes.

In its response, the Law Society has warned that the drastic proposals ignore the fact that there is no entirely separate legal field that can function unaffected by the law as a whole. As reported by Legal Futures, the Law Society also raised concerns that such changes will downgrade the titles of 'solicitor' and 'barrister' to the detriment of the UK legal profession, though it did acknowledge that the adoption of some activity-based proposals could form part of a qualification route to becoming a solicitor. There was also support for the idea that alternative qualification routes must form a necessary part of increasing diversity in the legal profession.

In its initial response to the LETR, the Law Society said: "We strongly support the development of alternative routes which achieve the same standards [as traditional legal education] and, particularly as the costs of education and training rise, enable people to gain qualification through a modularised and work-based approach. What is essential, however, is that the standards required are consistent whatever route to qualification is taken."